Links for 24th March 2009

"Music Memes are simple. If you are big/relevant/followable enough, everything that your band does is a meme that is worth being ‘covered’ by an outlet from the Tastemaking + Content Filtering Economy. Your ultimate goal should be sustainability, and willingness to adapt to change and embrace new content filtering+aggregation services." The band as cultural business plan. Very interesting, even though slightly tongue-in-cheek.

"Since the first 15 of a planned network of 200 cameras went live in November, officials claim that emailed tips have led to the seizure of more than 2,000lb (907kg) of marijuana and 30 incidents in which "significant numbers" of would-be illegal immigrants were spotted and turned back. Some tips came from Europe, Asia and beyond, but most online watchers are based in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, three of the four US states that share a border with Mexico."

"The rush to “solve” the problems of the crisis has opened the door to government actions on many fronts. […] For example, the Obama administration has proposed sweeping changes to labour market policies to foster unionisation and a more centralised setting of wages, even though the relative freedom of US labour markets in no way contributed to the crisis and would help to keep it short. Similarly, the backlash against capitalism and “greed” has been used to justify more antitrust scrutiny, greater regulation of a range of markets, and an expansion of price controls for healthcare and pharmaceuticals. The crisis has led to a bail-out of the US car industry and a government role in how it will be run. Even one of the most discredited ideas, protectionism, has gained support under the guise of stimulating the economy. Such policies would be a mistake. They make no more sense today than they did a few years ago and could take a long time to reverse."

"A true crutch word can fall anywhere on this scale, but specifically refers a word which the writer keeps re-using, probably because it’s stuck in their head, or it feels familiar. I will often find this in stories and novels (or sections of novels) where a certain turn of phrase or slightly unusual adjective recurs often enough to become intrusive. It’s the equivalent of having conversational phrases, things most of us do, to provide stock verbiage in certain situations. “Oh, I’ll bet,” as a generic reply is an example." Jay Lake

"The script allows you to use Google Calendar as a frontend for cron-like scheduling on your Unix/Linux system. If that system is acting as a home server, you’ve suddenly gained an incredibly powerful administration tool that anyone can use to control and automate their environment." Geekgasm!

"The idea was to dismantle the laptop and put the guts of it into a new enclosure. I wanted the laptop to act like a flat panel and cleanly hang on the wall. I decided a shadow box frame would be a perfect solution."

"… I can only imagine that Dubai will one day be seen as a punctuation mark on the architectural follies of the past half century. This off-the-shelf city state has been built on laundering the profits of oil, drugs, arms and western aid. Its sheikh was not a complete fool, like comparable African and Latin American autocrats. He realised that city states cannot live on one product alone, unless it is money. Since he had no oil, he would drill for money."

"… Yahoo Pipes isn't new; it has been around for over two years. But, like any fabulous technology, it sometimes gets a little lost or forgotten. Here's a quick refresher course on the basics, so that you can get back up to speed (or just get started) with Pipes."